Author: Chris

Well… It wasn’t my fault, I mean… They left Fenny Compton, one of my favourite hunting grounds, way too early but soon I was up on top of the hatch checking everything was OK. When they got to Claydon Locks I went inside and kept an eye on things from on  top of  the sink unit.

By the time got to Cropredy they seemed to coping all right without me, although there were loads of boats there for the Festival, so I went and had a lie down in a cool and quiet place while they filled up with water and put rubbish in the bins, which, by the way, were a disgrace with stuff overflowing onto the floor like they were last time we came through, I bet I could get a full time job there as a rodent control operative.

We hadn’t gone very far when Mum came inside calling me, then Dad came in and looked in all my usual hidey holes, well I knew it wasn’t food time so I stayed where I was.

The next thing I knew they had stopped the boat at Slat Mill bridge and went off somewhere and left me. They were gone ages, so I just went back to sleep. Eventually Dad came back and looked for pictures of me on the computer and started to make a lost cat poster. Boring! I must have done a bit of a snore because then he found me under the settee, behind his guitar case.

After a bit he went and fetched Mum, apparently they thought I had got off to at Cropredy to stretch my legs and were worried, so they had walked back the 1½ miles looking for me. As if I’d ever wander off like that! Well they couldn’t tell me off could they, I hadn’t done anything wrong!

They must have been pleased to know I was OK though because later on when they moored up in Banbury town centre, they gave me some lamb from their takeaway from the Jaypur Restaurant after they had washed off the curry sauce of course.

Lots of love, Jade (aka Catty)

Whilst we were boating up to Banbury, it was such a nice day that I wrote this little song.

You can sing it to the tune of Little Boxes made popular by Pete Seeger in 1963 if you’re old enough to remember it!

I’m a Boat Cat, I’m a Boat Cat
Don’t you know, I’m-such-a special cat
I sit on the roof hatch
And I look all around
And the people stop-and-look-at-me
And they say that, I’m a pretty cat
I’m a Boat Cat, I’m a Boat Cat
I’m the talk of the town

Sometimes I just sit in
My cage up, in the pointy bit
There’s shelter when it’s raining
And the water splashes down
But I come in the dry when
I know there are locks about
I’m a Boat Cat, I’m a Boat Cat
And I know what’s around

Sometimes in the country
I’m allowed to, go-out-a-bit
And I sit on the towpath
And I march up and down
And the mices and the water rats
They’d better, be afraid of me
I’m a Boat Cat, I’m a Boat Cat
And I’m out on the prowl

Sometimes on the towpath
I might meet a silly dog
They bark and they woof
and they jump up and down
So I fluff myself up
And I just sit and stare at them
I’m a Boat Cat, I’m a Boat Cat
And we never back down

Sometimes when I’ve been busy
I need-to-go and rest-a-bit
So I jump on the bed
And I lay myself down
And I stretch And I yawn
And I sleep for, just-a-little-bit
I’m a Boat Cat, I’m a Boat Cat
And I’m ready for tea

I’m a Boat Cat, I’m a Boat Cat
And I’m very, very proud-of-that
I see all the country
As we travel around
I know all the moorings
And the ducks and geese and waterfowl
I live on a narrowboat
On the Oxford Canal

Oh, what excitement! My first chance to write something on here! I feel very important now like my friend Boots, actually he isn’t really my friend because he hates cats, he lives with Auntie Mort on her boat Bones and writes her blog for her sometimes (Oh do you think its a bit familiar to call her Auntie Mort because she’s a doctor you know… Not a doctor who’s like a vet for humans, but a doctor who’s very clever and researches scientific stuff which even Mum & Dad can’t understand. Perhaps I’ll just call her Dr Bones, like everyone else.)

 

Anyway… here we are for a couple of days opposite Aynho Junction where the railway lines from Oxford and Bicester  join to go into Banbury and on to Birmingham and because the canal is between our boat and the railway, Dad has persuaded Mum that its safe for me to go out exploring. Wheeee!

 

 

 

 

The reason why we have stopped here is because Mum has a wheezy chest and needs a rest, Dad wanted to rub it with someone called Vick but she told him to behave himself. Anyway… its really nice here and I’m very busy inspecting all the hedgerows and keeping track of which boats come and go. Oh! I’ve got to tell you last night there was such a noise on top of the boat I was sure there were bad people about like the ones who untied nb Meybe in Banbury &  they woke up on the other side of the canal.

I tried all ways to see what it was and made Dad laugh until he took me out the back door and I found out it was just a couple of cheeky ducks on top of our roof! There are sheep and lambs here too who are very noisy sometimes so I have to keep them order, just a minute I’ve got to go and see a dog off who’s walking along my towpath. Well that told him, I fluffed myself up and arched my back and he’s gone now, him and his silly ball he was carrying, sorry but I’ve got to go now, I need some lunch after all that fun, then I’ve got to go and patrol the towpath again.

I was just inspecting the towpath… and well I don’t quite know what happened. Pisht!

Talk to you again soon, Catty x x x

As we had good internet coverage where we moored up last night, we decided to find out about our holiday to Australia to see our family and friends.

This made us later leaving we had some different locks to learn today you had a special key to unlock it with before you prepared it this was anti-vandalism precautions. I got back into the swing of taking the boat through the locks again as for the last few weeks they were done for you.

We had a shorter day today as we moored up twice and went food shopping. Wow I got Chris into Tesco and Sainsbury on the same day!

We were very impressed with Kidderminster they really made use of the canal this was a very pretty and cared for canal the Staffordshire and Worcester.

We are now moored up by Wolverley lock went for a walk around the village to visit St John the Baptist church built in 1772. The legend goes that the Lord of the manor, a crusader called Attwood was found in chains in the meadow, having been miraculously transported from a prison after seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary. On the way back I picked blackberries for tea.

We were woken up this morning at 6:30am by people talking, we found out afterwards they were fishing which meant we got a bit earlier start.

We paired up again with Judy and Graham on Katherine, to do some more locks. I feel I am getting more confident steering the boat in and leave the hard work to Chris preparing them.

 

 

 

As we entered through the back gardens of Leamington Spa we left nb Katherine as we moored up and managed to do a bit of shopping, we found a Co-op and Iceland in easy walking distance from the canal although, would you believe it, on the route to Warwick was Lidl even with its own moorings followed by a large Tesco.

Passing through to Warwick we crossed the River Leam and the railway line over aqueducts and this evening we walked into Warwick town and got an Indian take away; very nice, even Cattie enjoyed the Chicken Kashmiri, we need to build up our strength for the Hatton Locks tomorrow!

 

 

Tomorrow we have arranged to meet Judy and Graham again so as we can go through the locks together, we shall also have extra crew to help us as our friends Allison and Paul from Kingswood, Wotton-under-Edge,  are coming to help us, many hands make light work as they say..
Let’s hope so 😀

We went by train back to Lower Heyford today, picked up our car back from my friends Emily and Chris who has been kindly looking after it for us and I went to keep fit at Upper Heyford and had a good work out with individual attention. As some people were ill and others on holiday it turned out I was the only one so I did exercises for building up muscles for all those locks I will be facing in the future,

Got the train back and did some therapeutic shopping, including getting presents for my Grandson Morley’s birthday.

This week has been odd job and do it yourself week we have enjoyed being moored up against Acorn No 5 whilst Chris has been doing several jobs on it for John. I  have learnt how to get over stiles properly as there is one to get out from his garden.

We seem to have spent half the week in Wickes and Maplins, I was left in the car, nobody would even do that to a dog in this heat!

We moved the boat yesterday such a long way…the other side of the canal to the 48 hr moorings so as Chris could put his tools on it from his workshop at the Wharf. This resulted in us sawing his big tool box in half to accommodate it on the boat. Phew what hot work! Mitch, bless her, was an angel in disguise and bought me a coke and helped Chris lift in his dad’s tool chest (which Jeremy, our son, is going to have) into the car. That was mighty heavy!

I went along to Upper Heyford to join in their low impact exercise class, I thought this would build up my muscles for all those locks I have got to face….

We really enjoyed having visitors pop in yesterday, the crew of Marjorie B called in as they were on their way to the pub.

Catty put on her sad face, “Please let me out of my cage they are mean to me.” she doesn’t mean it, as soon as she is let out she wants to get back in, I think she thinks of all those mice she is missing.